Rugby: Champion Crusaders hoping for good news on new home

AMI Stadium was meant to have a used-by-date of five years. Photosport

Seven years after Christchurch's deadly earthquake, the Crusaders are preparing to defend their Super Rugby title at a temporary stadium built to last for only five years.

Back in those awful days following the quake of February 22, 2011, which claimed the lives of 185 people, the fact that the scaffolding, seats and pre-fab changing rooms went up at the former Rugby League Park in Addington in fewer than 100 days was one of the success stories of the region – a shining light among the gloom and uncertainty.

But now the stadium has outlived its use-by date and the Crusaders and most rugby supporters in the city would dearly love some clarity as to when a new stadium – effectively an events centre – will be built.

The city which missed out completely on the Rugby World Cup in 2011 will not host an All Blacks test this year – that honour has effectively gone to Nelson, which will host Argentina in September – because AMI Stadium's 18,000-seat capacity simply isn't enough.

Last year the city hosted a match between the Crusaders and British & Irish Lions but not a test against the tourists. One of the trademarks of the stadium is its coldness and general inhospitable nature for spectators in typical Christchurch mid-winter evenings, and that night was no different.

But there appears to be some hope on the horizon. Megan Woods, the minister for Christchurch's regeneration, has said she hopes to make a decision on the stadium at the end of April.

"We would like to have some certainty then," Crusaders chief executive Hamish Riach told the Herald.

Riach has always had to tread a fine line in terms of appearing to be too demanding while the city's residents battled broken houses and insurance issues, but most there agree it's time for some progress on an important piece of infrastructure.

Not surprisingly in a rebuild the size of Christchurch's, the formula for a new stadium is not a simple one. Queen Elizabeth 2 Park, the swimming pool and athletics hub in the east of the city, has had to be demolished such was the damage received by the quake, and there is a school of thought that the pool and "Metro sports centre" could be combined with a new football-specific stadium.

Lancaster Park, the former AMI Stadium, on the eastern edge of the central business district, is earmarked for demolition following a protracted insurance dispute, something familiar to many Cantabrians.

A large central city site of seven hectares has been earmarked for a sporting stadium and Riach and the Crusaders would dearly love one a football-specific pitch with a retractable roof. Anyone who has sat in the midst of a wintry southerly blast at their current home would concur.

And Riach said there are wider issues – it's not just about rugby. "Every weekend it seems that people are heading away from the city to attend events that Christchurch is missing out on. It is frustrating. It's not only rugby, it's wider than that.

"We live in New Zealand's second largest city and are missing out on all kinds of entertainment."

The Crusaders, who won their eighth title when beating the Lions in Johannesburg last August, play the Chiefs in their first game of the season at AMI Stadium on Saturday.

Asked how long he thought construction of a new stadium might take once it gets the green light, Riach said: "That's the great unknown. In the meantime we wait."

•Patrick McKendry travelled to Christchurch to visit the Crusaders headquarters at Rugby Park with assistance from the franchise's new major sponsor Fiji Airways.